There will be no TTG Asia e-Daily tomorrow, May 1, as we all take a much-deserved rest for our labour on this public holiday.
Hurray for long weekends!
Travelport gives agencies more business data and intelligence with Agentivity
TRAVEL agencies in Asia-Pacific can now access relevant booking data and business insights that will aid decision-making through a new feature of the Travelport system.
The technology solutions provider unveiled Agentivity yesterday. The web-based product is fully integrated with Travelport and can therefore update itself continuously with the latest activity of the travel consultant and travel agency.
Users will not have to install software or adopt a different workflow.
Agentivity was developed by UK-based Inside Group to give travel agencies actionable insights on all aspects of business, including daily operations, booking trends, additional revenue opportunities, emergency notifications and individual consultant productivity, among others.
Mark Meehan, managing director of Travelport Asia-Pacific, said in a press release that Agentivity is “incredibly useful” to travel agencies.
“(It) enables them to fully exploit the business opportunities we offer through our Travel Commerce Platform and concurrently upgrade the professional competency of their own operations.”
Onyx bags new deal for 2 more properties in Malaysia
BRINGING two more accommodation options to Malaysia is Thailand’s Onyx Hospitality Group, which will open the select-service Ozo Medini and Shama Medini serviced residence in 2018.
Both projects will open as part of the mixed-use UMCity Medini Lakeside complex in Medini township in Iskandar.
Ozo Medini will offer 198 guestrooms, breakfast area Eat, grab-and-go outlet Eat2Go, a swimming pool and a fitness centre.
The 232-unit Shama Medini will feature a restaurant, kids’ club, fitness centre and a rooftop garden with an outdoor barbecue.
“We are thrilled to continue the expansion of our brands in Malaysia. As a Thai company, having a presence in one of our closest neighbouring countries has always been priority for us,” said Peter Henley, president and CEO of Onyx Hospitality Group, in a press release.
Onyx has one more project already in development in Malaysia – the Amari Johor Bahru.
Said Henley: “The latest projects are particularly significant for us, as upon completion, they will mark the first time all three of our core brands, Amari, Ozo and Shama will be present in one region anywhere in the world.”
Same-day booking gaining popularity among travellers
THE trend of same-day hotel and airline bookings looks likely to grow in the future and travel agencies must consider how to stay relevant and value-add in such a climate, said speakers at Travel Tech 2015.
Though such travellers who book arrangements on the day of travel are in the minority, the number of last-minute bookings for hotel search queries are on the rise, said Marc Woo, Google Malaysia’s head of e-commerce & travel at yesterday’s conference in Kuala Lumpur, organised by the Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (MATTA).
This indicates that consumers are driven by the availability of platforms and technology, and the ease of doing searches on mobile devices on-the-go, Woo added.
GfK global director, travel, Laurens van den Oever, said he believes the trend for same-day bookings is aided partly by the oversupply of hotel rooms and airline seats, which drives hoteliers and airlines to use platforms that could absorb excess capacity.
However, he felt that it would be difficult for intermediaries, such as travel consultants, to add value to same-day bookings.
On the sidelines, Nigel Wong, MATTA’s vice president – research & technology, disagreed and told TTG Asia e-Daily that it would depend largely on whether a travel agency is flexible enough to allow execution of same-day bookings.
He elaborated: “It depends on what types of services are provided by the travel agency. If it is a city tour, all you need is a vehicle and a guide. But if it is a package with limited inventory, for example accommodation on Mount Kinabalu, then this may not be possible, as the agency will first have to contact the accommodation provider before confirming the booking.
“Undoubtedly, those with an online platform with capabilities for same-day bookings and instant confirmation will be able to take advantage of instant engagement with clients.”
Wong, who is also managing director of Kuala Lumpur-based Urban Rhythms Tours Adventures & Travel, is partnering with Borneo Trails Tours & Travel to create WonderfulBorneo.com.
The mobile-friendly portal will allow same-day bookings of tours within Sabah, and is scheduled to go live in mid-May.
Thai hospitality companies enter the African market
AFRICA is proving to be the next frontier for Thai hospitality groups buying, building or acquiring properties on the continent.
In the latest announcement, Minor Hotel Group (MHG) said yesterday it has acquired the Cheli & Peacock Group of Companies and its six camps in Kenya –Elsa’s Kopje, Elephant Pepper Camp, Joy’s Camp, Tortillis Camp, Kitich Camp and Lewa Safari Camp.
To come under MHG’s Elewana Collection, which already consists of eight other properties showcasing the highlights of Northern Tanzania, Kenya and Zanzibar, the Cheli & Peacock camps will nevertheless continue to operate independently under the guidance of founders Stefano and Liz Cheli.
Earlier this month MHG also said it is partnering Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company for two Anantara resorts in North Africa – the 93-key Anantara Tozeur Resort in south-west Tunisia and the 230-key Anantara Al Houara Tangier Resort in northern Morocco. Both are scheduled to open in 2017.
MHG is also going to add a fourth brand to the continent when it rebrands Essque Zalu Zanzibar to Per Aquum later this year. In total, MHG has 25 properties in seven countries in Africa across the Anantara, Avani and the Elewana Collection brands, and owns the Radisson Blu Hotel, Maputo, in Mozambique.
At the same time, fellow Thailand-based hospitality group Dusit International also celebrated the grand opening of dusitD2 Nairobi late last month.
The first Dusit property in sub-Saharan Africa, the dusitD2 Nairobi is the company’s second venture into Africa after the Dusit Thani LakeView Cairo in Egypt in 2009.
Chanin Donavanik, managing director and CEO of Dusit International, said in a press release that the launch is “only the first of many projects for Dusit in sub-Saharan Africa” as the group looks to solidify its presence in Africa.
GfK to power MATTA’s market insights
THE Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) and research company GfK will collaborate by means of data exchange to obtain greater market insights and understanding about outbound consumer behaviour among the Malaysian travelling public.
In a pilot project, 10 members of MATTA have agreed to share their data with GfK on the booking habits among Malaysian outbound travellers as well as the common services travellers book via a travel consultant.
“Information collated will provide greater market insights to better understand the rapidly changing consumer behaviour of travellers and help the travel industry make smart decisions to grow their business,” said Nigel Wong, MATTA’s vice president, research & technology.
An MoU was signed yesterday between Hamzah Rahmat, president of MATTA, and Laurens van den Oever, GfK’s global director, travel, for long-term collaboration that will ensure consistency in data collection, which in return will provide a better representation of the Malaysian travel landscape.
On this partnership, Hamzah commented: “As the national association of travel in Malaysia, we recognise the need to leverage technology in order to remain competitive in the market and become more relevant to the modern consumer. The partnership between MATTA and GfK is for the benefit of the Malaysian travel industry and will help the industry grow to its fullest potential.”
GfK will provide monthly reports to MATTA and the travel agencies involved in this pilot project.
Earlier this year, Gfk joined hands with Singapore’s NATAS to produce a holistic report on the Singapore tourism sector that will be launched this June. It is also collaborating with HATA in Hong Kong, with plans to tie up with JATA in Japan and AFTA in Australia for big data analytics support.
Sedona Hotel Yangon to open new wing as prep for growing tourism
ANTICIPATING rising visitor numbers, Singapore-based Keppel Land is launching the new Inya Wing at its Sedona Hotel in end-2015.
The Inya Wing will see an addition of about 420 rooms, bringing the hotel’s total room capacity to 786. At 29 storeys, the new tower block will be one of the tallest structures in Yangon when completed.
The new hotel wing will cost US$80 million to develop and will be fully integrated with the existing Sedona Hotel Yangon.
Speaking at the topping-up ceremony for Inya Wing yesterday, CEO of Keppel Land, Ang Wee Gee, said the property market in Yangon is poised to deliver healthy performance over the next year as Myanmar is expected to enter a phase of sustained economic growth.
Myanmar is forecast to reach 4.5 million tourist arrivals in 2015 and 7.5 million in 2020, said Ang.
Keppel Land owns and manages the Sedona hotels in Yangon and Mandalay.
Deputy minister of hotels and tourism Tin Shwe said the expansion of the hotel is timely and reflects the steady pace of growth in Myanmar’s economy.
International adventure and culture tour operators stick by Nepal
Boudhanath Stupa in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal – Credit: 123rf.com
[UPDATE] Thursday, April 30, 2015 with PATA Foundation’s reaction
ADVENTURE and culture tour operators say it is difficult to assess how the earthquake will reshape Nepal tourism in the long run, but have pledged continued support for the country.
Darrell Wade, co-founder of Intrepid Travel, told TTG Asia e-Daily in an email interview: “From a social and historic perspective, a lot of damage has clearly been done – several (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites have been all but destroyed. From an economic perspective, tourism is extremely important to Nepal, being its biggest employer.
“Hopefully, travellers will see that by traveling they will be supporting the people of the country. I suspect some however will be put off, thinking that the facilities and infrastructure will not be adequate.”
Holger Baldus, managing director of Marco Polo Reisen, said: “We don’t know yet the impact on the infrastructure in the areas outside Kathmandu valley. In the long run, outdoor tourism will surely come back to Nepal (but) regarding the more cultural-oriented tours, we will have to see the final impact on the heritage sites.”
For both Intrepid and Marco Polo, bookings to Nepal have been on the rise and both had clients in the country at the time of the disaster. They have thus set their sights on bringing clients back to Kathmandu, and home – itself a complex task due to disrupted road and air services.
The priority now for both tour operators now is providing relief – Intrepid started an appeal last Sunday and raised A$208,000 (US$166,194) within 36 hours, a figure that is still growing – and about rebuilding efforts, which tour operators said are crucial to bring back tourism.
Said Mandip Singh Soin, founder/managing director of Ibex Expeditions: “With all these tragedies of this magnitude, tourists actually start by staying away but the moment the basics are set right (they will start to return). That is the very thing that is needed; economic rehabilitation through tourism is so important.”
The UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kathmandu valley, the epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude quake that devastated the region and its surrounds, suffered “extensive and irreversible damage”, according to the BBC, which quoted UNESCO director-general, Irinia Bokova.
The site is made up of seven monument zones, out of which the three “noble courts” in the settlements of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan have been “almost fully destroyed”. The other four are the Buddhist stupas at Swayambhunath and Boudhanath, and Hindu temple complexes at Pashupatinath and Changu Narayan.
The BBC reported that UNESCO will dispatch experts to examine the damage.
For those keen to help, Habitat for Humanity is collecting donations for its Disaster Relief Fund for Nepal, as is the Singapore Red Cross online at www.sggives.org/nepalsrcs.
Peter Semone, PATA Foundation chairman, said: “Within hours of the April 25 earthquake that killed and injured thousands of people and devastated much of Kathmandu’s tourism infrastructure , the PATA Foundation made a commitment to assist the PATA Nepal Chapter in its tourism industry recovery efforts. We are still awaiting exact details on to how we intend to mobilise PATA Foundation money in the coming weeks and months once the immediate humanitarian crisis response efforts have been completed. Without question, we anticipate a great need for reconstruction of iconic heritage and culture sites as well as interventions to help people and organisations rebuild their tourism businesses.
“It is with this in mind that the PATA Foundation has established a Nepal Earthquake Tourism Recovery Fund, which the PATA Foundation has contributed an initial amount of US$10,000. Admittedly, the available PATA Foundation funds represent only a small contribution to what is certain to be an extraordinary need in terms of money and technical assistance. Therefore, we welcome individual and organisations to contribute to additional money to this fund by making donations through the link (above).”
What needs to be done? Read the News Analysis, TTG Asia, May 15, 2015
Sheraton Bali Kuta Resort introduces Limited Time Meeting Offer
GROUPS with a minimum spend of US$20,000 at the Sheraton Bali Kuta Resort can take advantage of the resort’s Limited Time Meeting Offer.
Available until June 30 for groups staying at the resort between now and December 31, the Limited Time Meeting Offer includes a 60-minute Balinese massage at Shine Spa for up to five VIP guests, and a one-time free buffet dinner for the event organising committee of maximum five people.
The offer is subject to availability at the point of reservation and bookings must be for at least 10 guests.
All Sheraton Bali Kuta Resort meeting packages include state-of-the art meeting space, two microphones, a projector, conference sound system and clutter-free meetings setup and meeting supplies. Additionally, meeting pads, candies, banquet pens and filtered water in reusable bottles will be available to all guests.
“Bali has been recognised as one of South-east Asia’s top MICE destinations, according to a recent Pacific World Destination Index Survey,” said the resort in a press statement. “At Sheraton Bali Kuta Resort… we want to thank those who organise company gatherings here by offering extras that they can enjoy as part of the corporate stay.”
The resort features over 1,600m2 of flexible meeting and event space, including a 700m2 ballroom that can be divided into two rooms.
Reservations can be made at www.sheraton.com/balikuta.
New meetings offer to go with newly refurbished spaces at JW Marriott Hotel Bangkok
JW MARRIOTT Hotel Bangkok will brandish its newly renovated Grand Ballroom and nine function rooms come September, and is rolling out an introductory offer to mark the occasion.
For the price of 5,999++ baht (US$190++), the hotel is offering superior deluxe accommodation for single occupancy, daily international buffet breakfast at Marriott Café, a free full-day or half-day meeting package, and high-speed Internet connectivity throughout the entire stay.
Booking is open now for meetings to be held between September 1 and December 31, 2015.
For more information and reservations, call (66) 2656-7700 ext 4406.
